Chapter 239: Little Tyrant
In the blink of an eye, it was the first month of the eighth year of Jian'an.

The snow in Guanzhong melted relatively quickly, and the troops returning to Guanzhong were barely settled.

The size of the army is somewhat large compared to the original garrison in Guanzhong, and now it must be disbanded and resettled.

Accepting resettlement is the wish of most officials and soldiers.

Each of them has three cows and horses, and wives are given priority in allocation; they are good at farming and grazing, so as long as a piece of land is allocated to them, they can establish a garrison village themselves, which will lead to new land conflicts.

Black Bear originally thought that he could have a few days of leisure and enjoy life after the withdrawal of troops, but the problem of resettlement of the soldiers made it difficult for him to rest.

Officials from various counties also showed a rare collective unity on the issue of land conflicts and had a tacit resistance.

They dare not oppose sabotage, nor will they cooperate in mediating new and old conflicts.

Black Bear had some urgency to move into Chiyang County and investigate the land and population in the county.

Zhong Yao arrived in Chiyang first, followed by Ma Teng, Chen Zhen, Duan Wei, Yang Qiu, Wei Ji, and even Wang Can, Cui Zhouping, Zhuge Liang and others headed towards Chiyang.

What is about to happen in Chiyang is related to the future taxation, corvee labor, and military conscription in Guanzhong, as well as the allocation of resources.

Zhong Yao, who arrived first, was left alone in the living room by Black Bear for the whole morning. The two met at lunch.

After the beginning of the first month of the year, the climate in Guanzhong gradually warmed up. Zhong Yao had mastered the essence of health preservation. He dressed warmly in this climate and had no intention of mistreating himself.

Black Bear was wearing a thick cloth cloak over his leather armor. He had just returned from outside and was covered in dust.

After taking his seat and taking off his leather helmet, he asked Zhong Yao, who was bowing, "Mr. Yuan Chang is also familiar with the situation of the counties in Guanzhong. Let me ask you a question first. Will you help me or them?"

Seeing Zhong Yao was stunned, Black Bear said, "Duke Yuan Chang, please think carefully. Are they rebelling against me or supporting Duke Yuan Chang?"

Zhong Yao nodded slightly, and then the servants brought hot tea and snacks.

Zhong Yao also knew that if he really angered the black bear, next time he would not just be starved for half a day.

After weighing the pros and cons, Zhong Yao spoke his words with golden words: "I support the Grand Marshal."

"The court has not officially conferred the title yet, so let's not talk about the Grand Marshal thing first. What I want to ask is whether Lord Yuan Chang will help me or them."

"Of course I'm helping General Hei."

"Well, since Lord Yuan Chang has this attitude, we have a need to continue the conversation."

Black Bear took out a scroll of bamboo slips and handed it to Zhong Yao: "I thought that the chaos in Guanzhong had just been settled, and I didn't want to start a war, but they prevented me from placing meritorious people. I am not a person who haggles over every penny. I don't care what they think. Anyway, I want to implement the new household registration system."

Zhong Yao said nothing, picked up the bamboo slips and spread them out to read.

The beginning was to set up the Hundred Households and Thousand Households, which were under the management of the Imperial Guard Commandery.

The idea of ​​using the abandoned land in the counties of Guanzhong to relocate the hundred-household households made Zhong Yao's eyes bulge.

Black Bear was not planning to change the existing taxation and corvee system in the Guanzhong counties, and he wanted to do things step by step.

Although the scholars in Guanzhong were severely injured, too many people have now poured into Guanzhong, and these scholars are sharpening their knives and have a great appetite.

The reason why these county officials composed of scholars were passive in their work was that they did not reap the benefits of the war.

It's as simple as that. If we provoke them further, we will get into some trouble.

Spring plowing is approaching and the army has not yet disbanded, so Black Bear doesn't want to waste manpower to do it again.

If we knock some of them off now, after the Hundred-Household and Thousand-Household Units have taken root in various counties, the so-called Guanzhong scholars will also be divided and chopped up.

A Qianhu Suo does not refer to an area where a thousand soldiers gather, but rather a superior management unit of several or dozens of Baihu Suo.

During the Battle of Weibei, Black Bear swallowed up the troops of the ten generals of Guanzhong. Nominally, these troops and the means of production they occupied are now Black Bear's private property.

The men and women rescued subsequently, as well as the troops brought back now, are all his private property.

So now that the counties are not cooperating, we will just ignore them and directly reclaim the wasteland in units of 100 households.

As for whether the land is wasteland, just look at the tax data of each county in the past few years.

Land that has never paid land taxes or rents must be wasteland or abandoned fertile land.

What's the problem with reclaiming the land for reuse?
This is a big problem.

Zhong Yao held the heavy bamboo slips in his hand. He had already understood that Black Bear was going to purge the officials in all the counties.

In the past few years, there were three types of people in Guanzhong who did not pay taxes. The first was the generals and their troops, the second was the powerful families and their troops, and the third was bandits.

It is normal for the generals and their troops not to pay taxes, because the generals of these troops are the tax collectors and distributors of taxes.

Also because of the existence of the Ten Generals of Guanzhong, county officials would not take the initiative to expand the tax source... No matter how much tax was collected, it would not fall into the local area and would be collected or robbed.

Therefore, in addition to the registered households in each county, there were powerful tyrants, loyalists, and bandits who did not pay taxes.

There were all kinds of messy relationships between the powerful, bandits and the county officials. A lot of land was cultivated but not recorded in the registers.

And now the black bear is going to eat this part and use it to accommodate the army.

It is completely reasonable to use wasteland to house the army and use the army to reclaim wasteland and achieve self-sufficiency.

This damaged the fundamental interests of the powerful, but it also divided the powerful and the county officials.

They are a group of people, but there are some differences between them.

For example, now, if we admit that it is wasteland, the powerful will be in trouble; if we say that it is fertile land, the county officials will be in trouble.

What the powerful and wealthy lose when they are unlucky is only good farmland, which, although very important, is only a means of production.

But if the county officials were unlucky, they would be subjected to a one-stop service of having their property confiscated.

Powerful families are often formed through slow growth through generations of operations. Families with only one person for three generations, where the wealth is concentrated in one or a few people... cannot withstand the risk and there are too few of them.

Therefore, in times of chaos, the powerful people are often led by a few people, and then joined by a large group of clansmen, in-laws, small landlords and rich farmers from the same village; they then annex and enslave the poor and refugees.

Local officials are only a part of them.

Zhong Yao had already understood everything, and also knew why the county officials responded perfunctorily and negatively to the order to relocate the black bear.

Because when Black Bear divided the land here before, the reference information was reported by various counties. Due to inertia, many fertile fields are still recognized as wasteland by the county government.

Black Bear didn't realize it at first, but discovered the truth after investigation... Then he was overjoyed, and tried to push the sword in through the gap, directly inflicting heavy damage on those big families and powerful people.

Compared with Guandong, the scale of these powerful and wealthy families in Guanzhong can be described as small and cute.

Black Bear seized the opportunity and was furious. If he stabbed the sword in, who among the small tyrants in Guanzhong could resist? As for winning over the big tyrants to come forward... In the battle of Weibei, ten commanders had been killed.

Hei Xiong doesn't even need to take action. He can find Cheng Yin and Cheng Yi, two second-rate heroes, to wipe out the small heroes in Guanzhong from beginning to end!
But this is not the way to govern a place, just like Cao Cao, who was short of money, could not rob or extort merchants and travelers at will.

If you are really short of money, you can punish the rebellious officials, expand the scale, confiscate their property and exterminate their clans.

You can convict and execute three generations of your clan, but you cannot rob.

This is the situation now. The black bear tried to grab the last little tail of the Guanzhong soldier and pull out his spine fiercely.

Zhong Yao looked at the final statistics in the bamboo slips, 22600 households, and couldn't help but feel a little dark in front of his eyes.

The troops of various generals who were incorporated before and after the Battle of Weibei could only be reorganized into forty-eight centurions. Including Ma Teng's troops, there were a total of sixty centurions.

The main force of these centurions came from the rescued men and women and from the army expanded during the war.

Once these 200-odd centurions gain a firm foothold, they will have more than 200,000 military households.

Even if they serve in shifts, Black Bear can still command a standing reserve of around 50,000.

With 50,000 standing troops invading the Central Plains, what could Cao Cao use to stop them?
According to normal population replenishment, the annual war losses should not exceed 10,000 young and strong people, so Black Bear should always maintain a standing reserve of 50,000.

Is this possible?

Bringing back so many slaves from looting can free up more young and strong people to serve; the women robbed from looting will accelerate the reproduction rate of military households.

Zhong Yao stared at the bamboo slips, and he already had an understanding in his mind.

Before these hundred households were established, there was the possibility of all parties joining forces to encircle and suppress the black bears.

Once the Hundred Households have taken root in various places, something terrible might happen.

That is, the black bear only plundered but did not occupy land, and used the manpower of the various Hu people and Guandong to maintain the rapid development of Guanzhong.

As for the small tyrants in various counties who are suffering now, these people did not cause any trouble during the period of Dong Zhuo and Li Jue, and it is even less likely that they will cause any trouble now.

When a steady stream of wealth flows into Guanzhong, these small tyrants today will become fanatical supporters of foreign plunder in the future.

Zhong Yao had been in Guanzhong for seven years, and he knew very well what Guanzhong lacked.

There is a lack of order and population...especially slaves.

The water conservancy projects in Guanzhong tended to be abandoned, and only during the floods of Spring and Autumn did the channels have stable water.

The water conservancy projects are abandoned and cannot support so many people; with too few people, it is difficult to maintain the water conservancy projects. It is a vicious cycle.

The initial natural disasters and man-made disasters led to the destruction of the water conservancy project.

If we want to recover now, we must invest a lot of manpower.

Apart from slaves who were willing to do the job without complaint, Zhong Yao could not think of any other solution.

It is also possible to force the people to perform corvée labor, but this will affect sustainable development.

With a million slaves, Guanzhong could be restored into a fertile land of thousands of miles.

Thinking about the future, Zhong Yao closed the bamboo slips and handed them to Black Bear with both hands: "General, what do you need me to do?"

"Don't interfere with my work. If someone wants to do something bad, Lord Yuan Chang can persuade them. If not, leave it to me."

Black Bear couldn't help but smile: "Although I may have made a big fuss, this matter is not my fault."

Zhong Yao also smiled helplessly and asked: "This is a major event in Guanzhong. General, why don't you ask Du Ji to come forward and help me appease the people in Guanzhong."

"Since I sent troops to Guanzhong, I have asked him for help twice, but he ignored me."

Black Bear restrained his smile and said, "It's okay once or twice, but not a third time. This is the third time I asked him and he refused. Killing him is the least of the worries, but destroying my reputation is the worst."

"It is precisely because of the repeated obstructions in Du Ji that I have not yet sent anyone to recruit Su Ze. I am afraid that he will compare himself to Lü Gong and Jiang Shang, and I must go there myself."

Black Bear couldn't help but sigh as he spoke. When he was heading towards Guanzhong, he really wanted to cooperate with Du Ji in order to stabilize the rear.

With Du Ji's cooperation, Gan Ning could be liberated.

The scholars from Guanzhong can also be integrated into the team to gain military merits and accelerate integration.

Compared with scholars from other parties, the scholars in Guanzhong pose the least hidden dangers.

But Du Ji looked down on him, which was very helpless.

When the situation developed to this point, he did not agree even though the brothers Yang Liang and Yang Guang from the Hongnong Yang family wanted to join, let alone Du Ji and Su Ze.

Now we just have to endure and see who suffers.

Seeing that Zhong Yao seemed to be hesitant to speak, Black Bear raised his hand to call over his personal soldiers and gave them some instructions.

The personal guard left and soon brought back a stack of official documents.

Black Bear checked them and picked out two copies and handed them to Zhong Yao: "This is a secret letter sent by Fu Xun from the north, and a report from Xiangyang."

Fu Xun was the Dongcao official of Liu Biao's Zhennan Shogunate, and was responsible for recommending candidates for the two thousand stone officials in the counties and kingdoms to the Shangshu Tai.

Now the only legitimate government office in the Xudu court was Cao Cao’s Sikong Government Office, and the Dongcao official of Sikong Government Office was Chenliu Mao Jie.

When Cao Cao was not in Xu Du, when the vacancies of two thousand stone officials in counties and prefectures needed to be filled, it had to be recommended by Mao Jie, a native of Chenliu in Yanzhou, and then Shangshu Ling Xun Yu, a native of Yingchuan in Yuzhou, could choose from the list!
Liu Biao found it difficult to expand outward, so Fu Xun's status was not very high, but in the selection of county officials in Jingzhou, Fu Xun, an outsider, held the right of recommendation.

However, with the pacification of Guanzhong and the continuous victories in the expedition against the Huns, Fu Xun, who was homesick, changed sides.

Cooperating with Wen Pin, he dealt a heavy blow to the Zhennan Military Advisor Kuai Yue, thus undermining Liu Biao's rule.

Zhong Yao first looked through Fu Xun's secret report and saw that Liu Biao was trying to feign illness to lure Liu Qi to Xiangyang to pass on the throne.

Let’s look at the report from Xiangyang, which was sent by Wen Pin; the content is simpler.

Military advisor Kuai Yue poisoned Liu Biao and attempted to lure Liu Qi to harm him as well... Therefore, Kuai Yue's three clans were killed by the rebel army.

Fu Xun, a famous wandering scholar from Xizhou, is about to return home.

Du Ji and Su Ze have replacements, so they are no longer important to Black Bear.

With Fu Xun to decorate the facade, most of the scholars in Guanzhong can be self-satisfied.

Zhong Yao was helpless and sighed secretly.

(End of this chapter)